The hazards of cleaning can be reduced with comfortable, ergonomic tools and equipment.

Each and every day, in-house custodial professionals and building service contractors (BSCs) complete repetitive cleaning tasks.

Over time, these motions have the potential to cause physical pain and reduce employee satisfaction, thereby affecting your business’ productivity and profitability.

Understanding the way equipment impacts physical health and methods for improving ergonomic stressors will better prepare your workers for their cleaning crusades.

What’s The Risk?

According to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), ergonomics involves assessing work-related factors that pose risks to individuals and finding solutions to alleviate those problems.

Thus, rather than forcing workers to fit the demands of their occupation, ergonomics designs the job to fit to workers’ needs.

The intensity, frequency and duration of these motions also impact a worker’s health by contributing to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which affect the body’s muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments.

For facilities that use mops, a current trend is to move from using traditional string mops to microfiber mops in certain areas.

These microfiber mops are lightweight and easy to handle and eliminate the need to wring a mop, which can lead to back and shoulder pain.

Additionally, using microfiber mops in a pre-wetted process reduces the amount of weight employees have to move.

Pre-wetting uses the exact amount of cleaning solution to get the job done, reducing repetitive motions and intense scrubbing that is sometimes required for problem areas.

Using microfiber cloths to clean other surfaces such as countertops and mirrors is also recommended because they effectively and quickly trap dirt in their fibers.

Floor care machines are another common method for preserving floors.

These allow staffs to quickly clean and dry floors in one pass with minimal effort.

With a multitude of walk-behind, ride-on and stand-on autoscrubbers available, it is important to understand features, such as weight, that best support a user’s health.

Lightweight machines are easier to transport and allow staffs to exert less force while pushing and pulling the units.

Handles with height adjustment and more comfortable grips are also emerging to enhance user comfort.

Look for vacuums and autoscrubbers that position employees’ hands in a more neutral position and offer protection from vibration.

Over time, these vibrations can cause discomfort in fingers, hands and wrists.

The Final Push

Once your facility has implemented user-friendly, ergonomic solutions, it is crucial that cleaning staffs are properly trained.

Incorrect use of ergonomically-designed equipment can be just as detrimental as using products that lack ergonomic features.

Demonstrate to workers how to efficiently and safely operate new tools and equipment so that they do not fall back into old and potentially harmful habits.

This also ensures that employees obtain the desired results and leave facilities in pristine condition after each cleaning.

Shaun Tinholt is the product manager of tools and equipment for Sealed Air Corporation’s Diversey brand. An accomplished leader with 20 years’ experience in manufacturing, logistics/value chain and product development,Tinholt can be reached at Shaun.Tinholt@Diversey.com.